A New York City councilman who objects to the image of a scantily-clad woman which looms over a strip club in a residential neighborhood has decided to take the law into his own hands by photographing patrons of the club and posting the pictures online.

Councilman James Sanders Jr., a Queens Democrat, told the hosts of Fox & Friends on Friday, "We're going to creative civil disobedience to ensure that everybody who goes into that club has a picture taken, and if they are proud to go into the club, we are proud to put it on the web."

"The only problem is that legally, you may not be able to do that," commented host Gretchen Carlson.

The billboard above the club entrance, which depicts a woman whose full breasts are covered only by a narrow strip of cloth over the nipples, is no more revealing than many comic book and video game images. However, Fox News, which showed the full image in the first tease for the story, later pixelated over the breast area and cropped the bottom, creating the impression that the figure might be nude and making the image appear far more lurid.

"We have children," Councilman Sanders explained in justification of his actions. "And any time anyone puts a 25 foot tall display, that they call a sign, on a major intersection where our children have to go to school -- this insult to women, this insult to our community -- we're going to take action."

"We did a mass meeting and had more than 300 people there," Sanders added. "In fact, they wanted to take worse actions than I'm speaking about. We're going to keep this legal."

Fox's legal expert, Judge Andrew Napolitano, then came onto the set, saying, "I have been watching this, and unfortunately the first amendment has some things to say about it."

Sanders acknowledged that "the club is a legal establishment and they are obeying all of the zoning laws," but he continued to claim, "They can advertise, they just don't have to inflict pornography on us."

"Under New York State law," Napolitano explained, "it's not pornographic. ... And as repellant as the business is, it's a lawful business."

"There are community standards," Sanders insisted, "and in our community this is not part of the standards."

"If you want to argue that it violates the community standards, then you have to go to court and get a judge to agree," Napolitano stated. "In my opinion, it's not pornographic, because New York's law is very, very, very broad."

"Where have we come, if that's not pornographic?" Carlson asked. "It looks pretty pornographic to me."

Billboards which publicly push the grounds of good taste have recently raised protests in major cities from Cleveland to Toronto and have been the subject of campaigns by conservative religious groups. Actor turned born-again Christian Stephen Baldwin attracted attention in 2006 when he announced plans to photograph patrons of a sex shop outside Nyack, NY.

Sanders, described by the Daily News as "a former Marine with a maverick reputation," gained attention last spring by campaigning for Barack Obama while most New York City Democrats were supporting Hillary Clinton. The News reported at that time that Sanders was hoping for a job in Washington if Obama won -- and that contenders for his council seat might include both his ex-wife and his current wife, who is his former chief of staff.

Now, considering that our President-Elect has so much on his plate already with the economy and undoing all of Dubya's messes, I'm not so sure that he would take that much time off his busy schedule to reward a local New York City councilman...especially one with such a wingnutty form of attitude. But then again, Obama did go so far as to approach fundie Christian/anti-gay bigot Donnie McCracken in the campaign, and he did carry some mixed messages on Proposition (H)8...so he may yet be suspectible to the politics of "sex panic". If this fool does manage to seal a position in his administration, it wouldn't be a good sign.

And, as always is the case when it comes to sex themes, leave it to Fixed Noise to play both sides of the street: faux moral outrage at "CHILDREN!! SEEING!!! POOOOOORRRRRRNNNNNN!!!!!1111ONE1111!!", combined with enough pixellated titillation to attract the usual rating. I expect BillO to be doing a "Talking Points" segment of his TV show from right in front of the offending advert by this time next week.

6 comments:

Knowing this fool and his...errrrrr....investigative fervor when it comes to these things, I'd bet on after. After all..if you are gonna "research" about the dire effects of "porn" and nekkid women (pasties aside, that is), then why not go all the way??

Uhm....How on earth is that billboard more offensive than any generic mainstream fashion magazine ad?

Maybe it's the European in me, but I honestly barely see this as even sexual :PHow typical of the Fox brigade to unnecessarily blur out parts to insinuate that they were originally uncovered. If I ever move to the US I sure know what 'news' to avoid :Þ

@arcticninja: Heh, every time I see your name, I visualize a ninja running around in a black parka with throwing stars. Anyway, yes, it's definitely the European in you, which is cool because I totally agree with that viewpoint. But Americans, with all the Puritanness, view any casual nudity as inherently sexual. And while Fox is bad, most of the others aren't too much better.

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Why yes, this blog is dedicated to pro-porn activism! With the belief that pornography falls under the auspices free speech and expression, and is legitimate entertainment for consenting adults, if made for and by consenting adults. One, as a consenting adult, has the right to make and view pornography as they choose.